Corporate
Profile

[Company strength]
Our company was founded in 1918. We are a long-established manufacturer in the Tono region of Gifu Prefecture, which is a famous tile-production center. The history of our company can be regarded as the history of high-quality ceramic tiles. Our proposal activities demonstrate the numerous quality improvement and on-time-delivery efforts we have made. We introduced a quality control initiative in 1994, and have held 40 internal QC presentation sessions to date. Our company also focuses on the environment, which motivated us to obtain ISO 14001 environmental management certification as early as 2002. We promote product development and production with our technologies for 600-ton dry press molding and high-temperature firing (maximum 1270 °C) with tunnel kilns.

[Business description]
We are a ceramic tile manufacturer and distributor. Our company manufactures mainly custom-made colored exterior mosaic tiles for houses and apartment buildings. We also produce small quantities of beautifully designed decorative tiles for apartment entrance halls, shops, and house interiors. Our high-quality ceramic tiles are produced through a combination of technologies. These include dry molding with a 600-ton hydraulic molding machine, glazing and design with a two-fluid spray gun, and high-temperature firing with serial tunnel kilns. We developed a new porous ceramic product that supports photocatalysts. Note that “support” in this case means depositing metal particles as a catalyst.

[Industry]
Ceramic tile manufacturing

[Strength of products/technologies]
We have developed a porous ceramic product that supports titanium oxide (a kind of photocatalyst). The photocatalyst exerts its best performance without flaking off from the ceramic material. Our development of porous ceramic material also led to the development of our TioCERA photocatalyst-supporting porous ceramic product. This was done through a combination of our accumulated core technologies, such as our firing technology and molding know-how. We then modified TioCERA to make a cubic module so that the mounted device can be downsized. We developed and installed a prototype deodorizer unit. It offers overwhelmingly higher photocatalytic performance compared to our competitors’ products, in terms of decomposition, deodorization, and sterilization. 



[Representative's message]
Our company has never stopped taking up new challenges despite its long history. We now hope to seize the opportunity of J-GoodTech to promote our newly developed TioCERA product. A comparative performance evaluation has confirmed that this photocatalyst-supporting product has performance several times higher than other commercially available photocatalytic products. We strongly hope to find a company that can develop products by applying TioCERA. 

[Company structure for market development/overseas expansion]
Our general affairs department and the development department within the sales division each have one dedicated sales representative who is responsible for new customer relations (two representatives in total). They also function as the point of contact for major companies. They provide technical consultations, solve problems by visiting the customer’s site if necessary, and communicate in English for overseas companies. We have been participating in exhibitions in Japan twice a year in recent years.

[Awards and media coverage]
[Awards]
Our business feasibility was ranked “A” in an assessment conducted by the Gifu Economic and Industrial Promotion Center in 2013.

[Media]
Mid-Japan Economist, introduction of our new photocatalyst-supporting porous ceramic product (February 19 and December 17, 2013).